Dan Marino files concussion suit against NFL

Former Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino is among 15 former players to have filed a federal lawsuit against the NFL claiming the league concealed the risk of concussions, among other allegations.

The suit, filed in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and first reported on by the Los Angeles Times, alleges the NFL “actively, aggressively and deliberately conspired with its team members and/or independent contractors who were directed to continuously discount and reject the causal connection between multiple concussions suffered while playing in the NFL, a non-scientific return-to-play policy for players suffering concussions and the chronic long-term effects of those head injuries.”

The lawsuit also asserts that “(certain) named Plaintiffs have suffered in the past from an assortment of problems associated with the harm and injuries described herein, including, but not limited to, headaches, dizziness, loss of memory, dementia, depression, impulse control, impulsivity to anger, cognitive dysfunction, employment impairment, physical activity limitations, embarrassment, loss of the pleasures of life, etc.”

Marino is described thusly in the suit: “Plaintiff, Dan Marino, is an individual residing in Fort Lauderdale, (Florida). Mr. Marino played in the NFL from 1983-1999.” There is no reference to any medical conditions particularly experienced by Marino or any other named plaintiff in the suit.

After retiring from the NFL, Marino — a first-ballot Pro Football Hall of Famer – spent more than a decade as an analyst with CBS. However, the network parted ways with him in February.

I am very surprised Dan Marino would do this.
He doesn’t need any money, he has to have plenty.
Please Dan quit with this. You got fired from your tv job, so maybe you are out job looking, but this is stupid.

Wow… I heard his wonderlic scores weren’t very good. I guess now I can see how the “I didn’t know that smashing my skull multiple times until I was unconscious was bad for my health” excuse can have some legs…

The lawsuit also asserts that “(certain) named Plaintiffs have suffered in the past from an assortment of problems associated with the harm and injuries described herein, including, but not limited to, headaches, dizziness, loss of memory, dementia, depression, impulse control, impulsivity to anger, cognitive dysfunction, employment impairment, physical activity limitations, embarrassment, loss of the pleasures of life, etc.”

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After being paid to be an NFL analyst on TV for 11 years, Marino finds himself unemployed. Now that he’s unemployed he suddenly remembers that he was concussed and wasn’t told the dangers?

I know this will shock people but the only thing football prepares you for after your career is over is TV talking head or using your fame to sell cars and autographs.

Players who think that the NFL gravy train should last their entire lives are part of the NFL welfare system.

The current concussion settlement will take care of anyone who has a legitimate debilitating concussion related ailment. There is no need for another lawsuit unless the NFL money has run out and you don’t want to get a 9-5 job.

How about the fans, shouldn’t they also get a cut since we were never told the players would eventually suffer from some form of trauma. We
spent a lot of money on tickets, transportation costs, time away from family for attending games that made us witness these acts of aggression.

Now the lawsuit has a face to it. I think this explains why owners have colluded to keep free agent money down. The owners and NFL know they have no leg to stand on. They are hoarding all the cash they can becuz they know they are going to shell out a ton soon

Hm. He did take some licks back in the day and – despite the flying birdies – kept chuckin’ the pigskin around.

But, you hate to think that his sudden change in financial situation with his relationship with CBS had anything to do with his involvement with the case …. but it makes you wonder. I mean, Troy Aikman was the king of concussions and he has had NO MENTION of being involved with a suit against the league. Surely, Dan knew what he was doing just as Troy, except he wasn’t planning on losing a stream of income all of a sudden.

I’ve been one of Marino’s biggest fans for thirty plus years , but I don’t like this at all. You’ve made millions upon millions of dollars playing in the NFL , and knew the risks before you ever stepped on the field. Now you’re going to sue the league ? We expected better from you than this , sir.

Put me down as “former Marino fan”! So tired of these guys that made millions looking for another payday. What about the retired beer truck driver that has a bad back and bad knees? Does he deserve a settlement? These guys all knew the risk and hundreds of thousands of us would loved to have played in the NFL. WEAK SAUCE!

Getting former players who our are out of the league and, in Marino’s case, not getting a broadcasting job for at least this year, to sign up is no effort at all. The attorney tells them “I will do all the work and front all the costs. If I get you money, you give me 40-45% and repay the costs out of the settlement and if not, you pay nothing.” Who wouldn’t sign up for that? Besides, who ever heard of any of these guys except Marino and Moses Moreno? They certainly have nothing to lose.

Bruce Clark, Hmmmmm. Wouldn’t sign with the Packers so he went to CFL. Then signed w/New Orleans Saints. How can he prove his issue is NFL related. Yes it’s a technicality but don’t lawyers use them as an advantage ? Yes, all the time.
I think he played in the World League too. This is a money grab.

So why is he suing now and not a long time ago? This just seems like a money grab and not legit lawsuit because of the timing here. Or did he do this a long time ago and we are just hearing about it now?

If you talk to old generations all they say was football was a real man’s game back then. All those real man are now complaining about playing a real man’s game. I don’t care what they say, you have to be smart enough to know if you get hit hundreds and hundreds of times there will be repercussions.

Now thats some BS! I love the NFL..Shut down the NFL first thing in the AM. Make every current and future player sign a waiver…The NFL will be back and running by tomorrow evening!!!
Everyone player knows the risk. Shut up and enjoy your money!!!

In other news, life long blue collar workers have all the same ailments. They took the paycheck they accept the risk, sad? Sure, but so are seeing miners nearly all die by 65, and hobbling around for 25 years before their 65th birthday.

Rightly so. If it weren’t for all the concussions, he may have actually amounted to something. Now he’s destitute, and with no post-football opportunities available to him. It’s terrible how the NFL just chewed this guy up and spit him out.

I never liked Marino as an analyst and as a player he was always selfish and made it about him instead of the team.After ALL of the money and women the NFL got him over the years-for him to file a lawsuit is ludricous.Dont give me the baloney about the NFL covering up concussions.You dont need a doctor to let you know when you get hit in the head you are doing long term damage.He CHOSE to do it ANYWAY for the money and fame.Thanks for giving Goodell even more reason to ruin the NFL with his safety protocol Marino.Soon they will be wearing flags.

On the one hand the players went willingly into the arena, and should have known the risks. On the other hand the league knew full well the damaging effects of concussions and went to great lengths to cover it up. More than that they made millions (if not billions) marketing the high impact collisions. People gripe about the league going too far to protect players from collision now days, but they really have no choice given their past transgressions. Football will always be a physical game, but best bet for the foreseeable future the league is not going to let up on player safety in order to protect themselves from future lawsuits. I just hope the on field officials get smarter about what they call and when they call it.

then I fully expect you to stop supporting it. which would mean to go find a new job. stop commenting on the sport all together. go get a job in baseball or something. don’t sit there and sue the NFL, while having a high paying gig profiting off it.

Never been a dolphins fan but who doesn’t respect his game and talent…..he has made quite alot of money off this violent game….even post career. Not a fan of guys who made riches make these lawsuits. Especially when the nfl settlement provided a lot of money for players who didn’t make anywhere near what he made and he’s going against that settlement

I’d like a taste of this action. Although, I wasn’t physically gifted enough to play professional football and earn millions. Maybe I’ll sue my employer for withholding certain facts pertaining to excessive sitting leading to excessive fatness. I guess there’s carpil tunnel too. Do I have to wait until I’m severed due to limp wrist or fatness? I’m so confused.

So he waited until he wasn’t working for CBS anymore to do this? So that means he spent the past, what, ten years still working in football and collecting a paycheck off the NFL, then as soon as that’s over he files the lawsuit?

I’m not saying he should have not filed at all, but… the timing is kind of disappointing to me, I guess.

This issue is gonna get uglier and uglier as more and more household name players get into the mix. The NFL is the king of the American sports world right now, and should act fast to not less this drag out the way Major League Baseball allowed steroids to do.

Another important take away from pro baseball is that Bud Selig’s strategy of trying to turn the fans against players (Bonds, McGuire, Sosa, etc.) only works for so long. If it’s just Bonds, who was already not well liked outside of SF, that’s one thing, but once popular guys got involved it got ugly. The NFL needs to keep this from getting ugly.

I guess he has free time to litigate and look for more handouts since he got canned from his tv gig. All these hypocrites will eventually kill the game. All great things must come to and end and all these lawsuits are just the beginning for the nfl. It’s sad… I love football but check back in 10 years and it’s going to look a lot different. Youth football lost 400k participants over the last 5 years and more lawsuits like this will only continue to kill it

Dan: Do you really think that you were paid millions to play chinese checkers? Do you really think that if you got knocked all over the place that you wouldn’t suffer some lasting affects? Sorry Dan, but the fact is that with what you are claiming is information withheld from you on purpose, you’d still make the same decision to play and assume the risks, just like the entire NFL is doing now.

Goodbye CBS and hello NFL settlement. Good timing with the firing and all Dan. The NFL should just park an ice cream type truck outside it’s headquarters and just give cash to the players out the to-go window

I’m sorry, but these old players knew what they were doing while they were playing. This b.s. has to stop. 15-20 years ago, retired players like Marino would laugh off that they played after they got their “bell rung” and treated it as a badge of honor that they did. But now that they see potential millions, it’s not so funny. This has nothing to do with anything other than a potential windfall.

Can’t help but wonder if Marino would’ve involved himself in this if he hadn’t lost his NFL TV gig. There was a time, not long ago, when Marino was outspokenly opposed to former players suing the NFL.
Sad to see him turn into another former player just looking for another substantial payday.

Dano, c’mon man. Yes you got your noodle knocked, and so did many. You’d looked good pitching infomercials for years. You broke dude? You decided to play 16 years. You decided to take the field and keep playing the game. You knew the consequences or are you stupid too?

I don’t know what to make of the suit, but Dan Marino was one of the best quarterbacks I’ve ever seen. I’ve never seen anyone else scan the field like that. I don’t even think he went through any progressions, he just saw everything at once. And he could get rid of the ball in a hurry.

Unfortunately the standards of today, don’t apply 30 years ago… not in medicine, so the whole argument against the NFL is bound to fail, because the standard of care 30 years ago was different. Dan Marino should know better

I hope Cliff Branch sues NFL also ..hes a deserving HOF hes been hit going across middle so many times he never missed time and he was the starting wr for 3 super bowl championships…he might as well sue NFL since the NFL does not appricaite his greatness and same goes for Lester Hayes and the late Todd Christionson id take him over Tony Gonzales anyday…Raider Nation…and good for the NFL they people they praise sues them and the people that just accpet it never complained but they dont dont there due…

Really Dan Marino? I understand the rest of those no names trying to squeeze one last dime out of the 15 times they broke the wedge on kickoffs in the 1980’s, but you? The law suit should just say “dudes who are bitter that they played in the league before the money got crazy, but still made great money at the time….vs the NFL” If you go back in time and tell Marino that he could trade all his fame and fans and glory and Isotoner glove commercials because he risked “headaches, dizziness, loss of memory, dementia, depression, impulse control, impulsivity to anger, cognitive dysfunction, employment impairment, physical activity limitations, embarrassment, loss of the pleasures of life, etc.” do you think he would take that deal? This suit should last as long as Marino’s stint as GM.

You can say what you want about these lawsuits and these new rules that make the nfl “softer”, I think the future picture is clear. With less concussions from new rules and better policy to analyze these players before letting them play again. I believe the players who entered the league when Goodell took over and started making all these new rules will show a drastic drop off in long term effects.

I say this because every time I see old film and how players got knocked out. Mixed together with all of these things they’re saying about teams such as

““actively, aggressively and deliberately conspired with its team members and/or independent contractors who were directed to continuously discount and reject the causal connection between multiple concussions suffered while playing in the NFL, a non-scientific return-to-play policy for players suffering concussions and the chronic long-term effects of those head injuries.””

Well those two things mixed together sound TERRIBLE. So ya, good for Dan Marino and all the players that are suing the league. Could you imagine your boss lying to you about pesticides and your body and telling you to keep doing your job. Then 20 years later all your friends are all messed up? Honestly, I think a bigger piece of the pie should go towards helping former players of the NFL. I thought what the Seahawks did to help that one guy out was fantastic. I’d love to see all teams and players agree to give a good enough chunk to these former players that they no longer have to sue for it.

You can say what you want about these lawsuits and these new rules that make the nfl “softer”, I think the future picture is clear. With less concussions from new rules and better policy to analyze these players before letting them play again. I believe the players who entered the league when Goodell took over and started making all these new rules will show a drastic drop off in long term effects.

I say this because every time I see old film and how players got knocked out. Mixed together with all of these things they’re saying about teams such as

““actively, aggressively and deliberately conspired with its team members and/or independent contractors who were directed to continuously discount and reject the causal connection between multiple concussions suffered while playing in the NFL, a non-scientific return-to-play policy for players suffering concussions and the chronic long-term effects of those head injuries.””

Well those two things mixed together sound TERRIBLE. So ya, good for Dan Marino and all the players that are suing the league. Could you imagine your boss lying to you about pesticides and your body and telling you to keep doing your job. Then 20 years later all your friends are all messed up? Honestly, I think a bigger piece of the pie should go towards helping former players of the NFL. I thought what the Seahawks did to help that one guy out was fantastic. I’d love to see all teams and players agree to give a good enough chunk to these former players that they no longer have to sue for it.

Now that he’s unemployed and needs a source of income, it’s time to try and milk the NFL via lawsuit. This is a tactic usually only seen by those who flopped out of the league as opposed to former superstars, but I guess this proves nobody is above it.

Marino never won anything and yet the NFL always tryed taking care of there favorite players…he dont even deserve to be in the HOF.. you compare Marino to Jim Plunkett who deserves to be in hof more..Plunkett lead his team to 2 super bowl wins…hes not trent dilfer dilfer only won one and he only handed ball off…Plunkett made big plays in big games and what does the NFL DO…they leave him off the HOF like they do to Cliff branch 3 time super bowl winner ..todd christinson and lester hayes…but no keep taking care of your favorites like marino so they can stab you in the back. you could see the NFL changing to much to fast and its getting worse…RAIDER NATION

Marino like the rest of them gets zero sympathy. No one put a gun to his head to force him to play. Everyone who’s ever played the game knows its dangers. After the first concussion, he could of switched careers.

I’ve done nothing but criticize the players involved in “The Big Money Grab of 2013”. So now I have to criticize my man Dan.

Dan being involved will make me sit up and pay a bit more attention to what’s going on, but I doubt even he could convince me of this being a legit lawsuit.

Many of these players will lie to the team about what they’re feeling just to get back out there, and while a silly thing to do, it’s also a form of bravery that you admire….so don’t come back years later with this crap.

problems associated with the harm and injuries described herein, including, but not limited to, headaches, dizziness, loss of memory, dementia, depression, impulse control, impulsivity to anger, cognitive dysfunction, employment impairment, physical activity limitations, embarrassment, loss of the pleasures of life

So now players are suing the NFL for loss of the pleasures in life? What now their not making millions and living a glamorous life style, they feel owed? These lawsuits need to be thrown out and never heard of again

here are two different things being talked about here legally, and alot of people, including Ed Werner and Mark Brunell just now on Sportscenter, and mixing them up for their convenience.

1) Dan Marino, and other players, have always said, as they should, that they know they could get hurt/injured, head to toe, every time they set foot on the field, and they accepted that. They wouldn’t be able to make a suit alleging that they were unaware that could get injured or suffer concussions stand up. No one would. So that is true.

2) Dan Marino, and other players, played in a time where evidence now shows that ACTIVE CONCEALMENT of new (then) medical data concerning the long term effects of concussions occurred from the league office all the way down to the team medical staffs. The league and the teams had a “responsibility to inform” at that point. They had to decide- is it reasonable to disclose this info as soon as they began to see it and use it to implement return-to-play-after-injury safety protocols that reflect, to the best of their knowledge, the safest and most informed system they can reasonably run? Or is is reasonable to ignore this medical evidence and not say anything about it for whatever reason? So then there’s that choice the NFL had to make. For many years, they chose (b).

If the trier of fact finds that players (or teams, then players through the teams) should have been officially briefed by the NFL and they weren’t, that’s an actionable legal issue. If the trier of fact finds that no one was briefed and asked to sign off on any relevant data concerning the long term health/life/death of players that they became aware of within a reasonable time of that awareness occurning, then there is gonna be a HUGE payday. That’s looks like the case here, and players from that era are lining up.

Everything happening today for “player safety” regarding concussions is in reaction to this and it gets the NFL off the hook in this era because now people are educated and informed by the NFL “to the best of the NFL’s knowledge.” Is the NFL responsible for everything that can go wrong on the footabll field? No. Should that mean they lie and conceal cutting edge info about health as it arrises in medical studies that they are made aware of? Also no.

So players from Marino’s day see this new age rules/protocols barage, and they say “wait, they never told me this stuff…” And if the NFL didn’t know, or shouldn’t/couldn’t have known about “this stuff” then there’s nothing anyone can do. But for the players in the times between (a) where the league started seeing established and credible data about the long term effects of concussions and more safe time-tables for return to play, and (b) where they started disclosing this and implementing reactionary safety protocols for it—- BANK TIME for those players. They can recover, and are doing it. Even Dan the Man.

People who are tired of people grabbing easy money where they can are interesting… This is easy money grab for these guys and they, like anyone, should take what the can. And give what they can once they take it too. Pretty sure Dan marino is pretty charitable. so if this money, in part or whole, goes to charity, what say y’all now?

AMAZING! Don’t these players know that they exist purely for our entertainment and pleasure.

Most of them got paid very well, so why should they and their families care about the future of the gladiators that serve only to make our lives more bearable.

They’re not really people. any resemblance to normal employees in the American workplace is strictly incidental. They shouldn’t sue. As a matter of fact, no worker should ever be able to sue his boss.

If he cuts your pay, takes away your overtime, paid vacation and healthcare, it’s OK. This is America and the “job creators” can do what they want. If workers (especially football players) want a safe work environment. They can go to a civilized nation with worker protections. Suing the 1% for what they have worked so hard to steal, is not the American way.

I think it’s an incredibly bad PR move for him. He made millions playing, is a Hall of Famer, and a current commentator who still manages to do product endorsements. Him suing the NFL separately really rubs me the wrong way. I can only assume he needs to the money, or there is another, broad legal angle at play.

What a loser. I hope the NFL as learned its lesson. You can Google a big selection of Liability Waiver Forms, hard to believe they didnt have that covered???
Meanwhile Danny boy go stick your little penuckle in some unsuspecting tv minion who falls deeply in love with you. Wonder if Danny is any relation to Donald?